Recurrence time correlations in random walks with preferential relocation to visited places

Abstract

Random walks with memory usually involve rules where a preference for either revisiting or avoiding those sites visited in the past are introduced somehow. Such effects have a direct consequence on the transport properties as well as on the statistics of first-passage and subsequent recurrence times through a site. A preference for revisiting sites is thus expected to result in a positive correlation between consecutive recurrence times. Here we derive a continuous-time generalization of the random walk model with preferential relocation to visited sites proposed in Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 240601 (2014)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.112.240601 to explore this effect, together with the main transport properties induced by the long-range memory. Despite the long-range memory effects governing the process, our analytical treatment allows us to (i) observe the existence of an asymptotic logarithmic (ultraslow) growth for the mean square displacement, in accordance to the results found for the original discrete-time model, and (ii) confirm the existence of positive correlations between first-passage and subsequent recurrence times. This analysis is completed with a comprehensive numerical study which reveals, among other results, that these correlations between first-passage and recurrence times also exhibit clear signatures of this ultraslow relaxation dynamics.